Executive in Olympics case leaves Reuters

Reuters and its head of logistics, Larry Rubenstein, have parted company. Sources inside the organisation said he left on Friday.

Rubenstein was a photojournalist who became Washington-based general manager for safety and logistics in Reuters editorial last year. 

His manager, chief operating officer Stuart Karle, said in a message to staff that Rubenstein, an integral part of editorial operations for more than two decades, had decided to resign for personal reasons.

“We will review how to organize Editorial’s logistics, special events, and safety support in the coming months,” Karle said. “Effective immediately, Declan Niall, Editorial Logistics Manager in EMEA, will report to Sarah Edmonds, and Mitch Rabinowitz and Sara Barakat, our Editorial Logistics team in the Americas, will report to Rob Doherty. Sam Jamison, Editorial Safety Manager in EMEA, will continue to work closely with Caroline Drees and all of our General Managers on safety support for Editorial.”

Rubenstein and Karle were two of the three editorial executives named as defendants in an age discrimination case brought by global sports editor Paul Radford, 66. The third was deputy editor-in-chief Paul Ingrassia.

The case arose from a dispute over staffing levels for this year’s Olympic Games in which Radford, a veteran of many previous Olympics, was removed from any role in coverage. It was settled out of court after one day’s proceedings at an employment tribunal in London last week. As part of the settlement Radford left the company.

Reactions by colleagues on Facebook to news of Rubenstein’s abrupt departure included the following: “Big loss for Reuters”, “Damn, the one guy who knew how to get anything done”, and “He excelled at finding solutions… fast”. ■